Florence Academy of Art

The Florence Academy of Art was founded by Daniel Graves in 1991 with a handful of students in a small studio in the gardens of a Florentine palace. The school trains students in the classical tradition of realist painting and sculpture, drawing on the language of Rembrandt, Velasquez, Titian and Sargent. Students work from the figure in north-lit studios, alternating between figure work, studio exercises, and evening lessons in anatomy, art history and materials and techniques. The school occupies a 35,000 square foot former customs house just outside Florence's city center. It includes classrooms, a gallery, a library, a cafe, faculty studios and apartments for visiting artists, and it also offers workshops and a Master of Arts in Studio Art for educators.